When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley’s name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers.

In this talk, Gary Lachman traces the arc of the “great beast's” controversial life and his unparalleled influence on modern pop culture. Looking beyond Crowley’s reputation as the wickedest man in the world Lachman will uncover how Crowley was a master of ceremonial magick, yoga, Qabalah, Tarot and numerous meditation traditionsas well as a mountaineer, poet, a chess player of distinction and a mentor to the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa

Gary Lachman
Gary Joseph Lachman, also known as Gary Valentine, is an American writer and musician. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as the bass guitarist for the punk rock/new wave band Blondie. He is now a full time writer and the author of twenty-one books on topics ranging from the evolution of consciousness to literary suicides, popular culture and the history of the occult.